Report-card grades are derived from a consensus of test-driver evaluations. All grades are versus other vehicles in the same class. Value grade is for specific trim level evaluated, and may not reflect Consumer Guide's impressions of the entire model lineup.

John Biel

It’s got a name that sounds like it might have come from one of the great cross-country passenger trains of the last century, and, frankly, you might think the only thing the Chrysler Pacifica Limited minivan is missing is a sleeper berth.

Available with gas or hybrid gas/electric power, the well-equipped Limited sits at the top of the expanded 2018 Pacifica pecking order. Versatile passenger seating and cargo management (particularly the Stow ‘n Go seats), ride and handling balance, cabin quiet, and stylish looks have made Pacifica the Consumer Guide® Automotive “Best Buy” selection in the class.

Our test vehicle was a line-topping Limited model equipped with the Tire and Wheel Group package, which replaces the standard 18-inch alloy wheels with 20-inch wheels.

Consumer Guide®’s test van went a bit further with extra-cost 20-inch wheels; a KeySense fob that enables setting limits on speed, audio volume, and other features; Advanced SafetyTec with the addition of front parking sensors, surround-view camera, parallel and perpendicular parking assist, adaptive cruise control, and more; and a Customer Preferred Package consisting of a Blu-ray/DVD player, video screens on the seat backs, 20 Harmon Kardon speakers, touchpad remote control, wireless headphones, USB and HDMI jacks for each screen, and other electronic-entertainment conveniences. (For ’18, the rear-seat entertainment system can stream from Android devices.) Outfitted this way, it was priced up to $49,665 with delivery.

Pacifica’s forte is the carrying of people and stuff. There’s plenty of leg- and headroom in the front and middle rows. Front seats provide a pleasing level of comfort. Stow ‘n Go second-row seats—twin individual seats are standard, with a removable center seat available—aren’t as plush, due to their need to fold flat into the floor. At least they do that quite easily. The Limited has “Stow ‘n Assist” buttons to power both front seats forward enough to permit the second-row seats to fold into their floor bins, then return the front seats to their original positions. When the middle seats are up, an “Easy Tilt” feature facilitates access to the third row, where the seats are legitimately adult friendly. With the middle and rear seats folded, the cavernous, flat-floored cargo area offers 140.5 cubic feet of load space.

Storage for personal items is handled up front by a good-size glove box, a tray that pulls out from the center stack, a wide “purse porch” on the floor, a covered bin and a pair of open cup holders on the consolette between the front seats, and two rows of pockets in the front doors. The longer lower ones incorporate bottle holders. Middle-row occupants are presented with a pouch on the back of each front seat that’s handy for holding the entertainment-system headphones. (A smaller pouch-upon-a-pouch is the receptacle for a system remote controller.) There’s a floor-level bottle holder in each sliding door. Cup holders and small open bins are molded into the sidewalls to serve third-row passengers.

Interior surfaces in the Limited have a premium look and feel to them. Speedometer and tachometer dials are ringed in distinctive blue “mood lighting,” but the gauge faces can be a little difficult to read. The central screen handles all audio settings. Climate selections can be input via the screen or manually set with a bank of controls below the screen. Windows are big for good driver vision to nearly any angle. However, if third-row headrests are in the up position, they are large enough to block the corners in the view through the rearview mirror.

Thanks to its fold-into-the-floor Stow ‘n Go second-row seats, the Pacifica’s cargo versatility is unmatched in the minivan segment. It can quickly be converted from a 7- or 8-passenger family truckster to a 2-seat cargo van.

The 3.6-liter V6 that powers all gas-engine Pacificas makes 287 horsepower, enough to move the van from a standing start with more than enough quiet confidence. Highway cruising is unlabored. A rotating dial on an angled platform protruding from the dash enables easy drive-gear selection of the 9-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The EPA rates the 2018 Pacifica at 19 mpg in city driving, 28 mpg on the highway, and 22 combined. This driver averaged just 16.9 mpg from a 170-mile stint divided evenly between city and expressway operation, but he fared better at 19.1 mpg in a slightly longer trip with more city driving when wheeling a 2017 Pacifica. The van steers easily, rides smoothly on most surfaces—even with the larger wheels—and stops promptly.

Abundant room for people and cargo, plus a high level of safety and convenience features are the things that draw in buyers of family vehicles. The ability to get those attributes and still come sliding in for less than $50,000 is what makes Chrysler’s minivan so worthwhile. All aboard!

The bottom line of our loaded test vehicle came very close to $50,000. Yes, that’s a lot for a minivan, but the Pacifica Limited offers luxurious cabin trim, a generous list of comfort and convenience features, confident acceleration, respectable fuel economy for its size and power, and better passenger and cargo versatility than any three-row SUV.